December 17, 2023

Christmas is almost here! Just a week away. I am so grateful for all the reminders around us of the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. He can change lives if we just let him! That is what this missionary work is all about and I am so grateful I get to be a part of it.

This week started out great. I mentioned last week that we had some former missionaries come for a visit and Monday we got to share in a fun breakfast with them and ask them all about their lives. It was a blast! Pictured below are Elder Williams, Elder Hyde, Elder Olsen, Elder Royts, & Sister Lynam.

After our breakfast we headed into the office for our Office Staff Meeting with President & Sister Phillips and then left for the day to head up to Washougal. While we are here Tom is going to replace some of my crowns that are getting older and worn out. Monday he replaced (2) of them with another one sometime next year. It is so generous and kind of him. I survived the two hour appointment and then we met up with Tracey to donate blood. What a great gift to give at Christmas time. So glad she suggested it. Next up was a birthday dinner with Danica and the family. This beautiful girl just turned 18!! I don't know how that can be. She celebrated her birthday on Tuesday by playing in her high school basketball game but Monday she wanted me to fix her favorite dinner of Parmesean Chicken. I was happy I could help make the day special. Danica will graduate this year and I can't wait to see where life takes her. We are glad we can sit on the sidelines and cheer her on!!

Tuesday we got to play Santa's elves and sort all the missionary gifts by zone. We then color coded them and prepared them for transit to the various zone conferences. It was a big job but many hands make light work.

President & Sister Phillips also got into the gift giving mode and prepared a gift for each and every missionary. Their generousity continues to amaze me!!!

The rest of the week was taken up with Zone Conferences. We love traveling to each different area and visiting with the missionaries there. One of my jobs is to coordinate with the Stake Relief Society Presidencies regarding the lunch they serve our missionaries. We are so grateful they provide this service and we don't have to do it. One of the buildings we met in this time was still decorated from a Youth Snowball Dance so we really got to eat in style. The theme of our Zone Conferences this time was Teaching Faith in Jesus Christ and concentrated on improving our teaching and teaching so that new members recognized that their journey doesn't end with baptism. They are just getting started and receiving the Holy Ghost and partaking of the Sacrament each week are equally as important. Elder Rowan was given a few minutes to address the missionaries about safe driving and what to do if they get in an accident. I have been preparing new Accident Packets for all the cars so we got those passed out with updated instructions. Mental heath challenges are a big problem for these young people on their mission so Sister Phillips also gave some excellent counsel using Mark 5:1-20.

When we got back from Zone Conferences Friday night we were met with a display of nativites outside our office. These were not just any ordinary nativities. These had to be part of a Boys Activity Day event or something similar. I thought it was such a good idea I had to document it here for later use. It appears that each group was given a sack containing the same materials with the challenge to create a nativity. It looked like they got red potatoes, foil, nails, plastic eggs, forks, tissue papper, straw, twigs, and leaves. Here are just a few pictures of their creations.

In July of this year the Church released a new version of Preach My Gospel. It is the 1st update since it was orginally released in 2004. President Phillips was so excited. We were told that the missionaries would get their copies in early October which was a huge disappointment. They wanted them right then!! Well, October came and went and still we didn't get them. Then about 2-3 weeks ago we got emails saying they had finally been ordered. Then early last week we got updated emails saying they were backordered until Feb 2024. President Phillips was not happy about that and told us to forward the email to someone higher up in the church. Not sure exactly what his position is but the very next day we got notice that the manuals were being shipped this week!! They came and everyone is SOOOOOO happy!!

One of the fun parts of being on this mission is to see the growth in our missionaries. That is never more apparent than when they go home and give their "homecoming" talks. Because Facebook is so encouraged in the mission we have the blessing of being Facebook "friends" with most of our missionaries. That means we can stay in touch with them when they go home and get invites to watch their "homecoming" talks on Zoom. How lucky we are to be on this mission Post-Covid when so many Sacrament meetings are still on Zoom. Today we got to listen to Sister Garrett. We love her and are so grateful we got to serve with her.

Talking about people we love, we also want to give a birthday shout out to our son-in-law Christopher Hugie!! We love and appreciate him. He takes such good care of us and always watches out for what he can do for us. We are so grateful he is a part of our family! We don't know what we would do without him!